Back crack quack attack – the song

Not got round to doing any extended chiropractic debunking as yet, though I am enjoying tremendously seeing what the rest of the posse have been up to. Anyway, as a small contribution, I thought that perhaps the counter-Chiropractic unreality movement needed a theme song. So here is my attempt.

For the tune I have chosen a late 60s classic of pained disaffection with the state of the world. It seemed appropriate somehow. For full versions of the song see below.

The little video above, which is actually just the last part of the song, comes from an early performance of the song 21st Century Schizoid Man when King Crimson supported the Rolling Stones at a famous free festival in Hyde Park in 1969. This was the festival a few days after ex-Stones guitarist Brian Jones’ death, and the performance at which Mick Jagger famously read Keats to the assembled fans in memory of Jones – a clip which turns up on many a TV documentary and indeed on Youtube.

And before you ask, of course I wasn’t there. I’m old, but I’m not that old.

The full audio of 21st Century Schizoid Man from the same performance (no visuals) is here, with the album version here. Finally, there is another version, apparently from a BBC session, here.

However it is enough funny that such contradictory person as Nick Cohen expresses progressive opinion now. I started to doubt…. There is a danger of loss, as I suspect. Be prepared to further battles. It is possible, “left wing” (i.e. Goldacre, Colquhoun, you, etc) will be forced to battle without support against chiros.

The Guardian and Observer are the broadly centre-left progressive newspapers (daily and Sunday respectively) in the UK, and belong to the same stable.

Nick Cohen was historically broadly liberal in his views, which is probably why he is still writing for the Observer, though a lot of people would say he has moved significantly to the right as he has got older. However, I think it is most accurate to see him these days as a kind of “libertarian contrarian”. Actually “contradictory” is not a bad word for him.

I certainly don’t agree with Nick Cohen’s view about everything, but on libel laws and free discussion he is bang on. And a dislike of bullshit, and of overbearing use of power, cuts across the political spectrum – thankfully.

The same “cuts across party” is true of Alt.Reality thinking as well. You can find enthusiasts for CAM right across the political spectrum in the UK, and the US too.